Page 35 of Dangerous Play

“We’ve got this,” he muttered, his eyes on Coach Parker in front of us. “We never lost in a home game and we never will.”

I doubted his words, but I forced myself to act confident. If I made the wrong call and messed up even more, I was going to go down in history as the worst captain of the Titans.

No pressure really.

Letting out a small exhale, I took my position opposite Maddox. Contrary to before, now we had two people between us, which meant our position was quite wide, making it challenging to defender.

I watched the opponents trying to shadow us, find whoever they were stuck on, but the new positioning threw them off a bit, which gave us the edge to snatch up the ball, moving it between the five of us in the midfield.

My eyes were glued to the ball, not leaving it for a nanosecond in order to not miss out on anything. The next forty-five minutes were make or break. There was no room for error from our side.

We made pass after pass, moving the ball as a unified team while time ticked away like the most annoying countdown.

The Titans had higher possession percentage of the ball, but when it mattered the most, we lost it.

And that’s how the score suddenly jumped to 1-0 to Hidden Hills. No matter how much I pushed my body, I couldn’t catch up to the ball as they easily moved past our defense, snatched the ball, and moved it all the way up to the goal line and scored.

I let out a frustrated groan, my fingers threading through my hair and I pulled on it.

“Max,” Maddox muttered, elbowing me. “Focus.”

He was right, I wasn’t focused. Not since the back of my mind was occupied with a certain blonde who drove me crazy. I wanted to know if she was wearing my jersey, but I didn’t want to see the disappointment in her eyes.

Losing wasn’t how I wanted to start off her experience in watching me play.

Not that I should have cared about it, she wasn’t mine, not for real. Yet, the throbbing ache in my dick reminded me how good it felt being close to her and wondered how it would feel kissing her senseless or diving into her.

With another muffled groan, I twisted my upper body, catching a glimpse of Ivy on the stands. Her blonde hair was braided in two long braids and my jersey that should have hidden her slim and sexy body was tied around her waist, exposing a teasing line of tanned skin above her jeans.

I swallowed hard as my eyes connected with her emerald ones.

She slowly pulled her beautiful pink full lips into a smile and silent words passed between us.

Words of encouragement.

Words of hope.

Words of good luck.

I needed them all, because I was losing all hope in myself that I could get this done.

I let out a long breath, and without even a smile, I turned back toward the field.

“Let’s go,” I muttered to Maddox and jogged back into position.

There was still fifteen minutes left of the game and I had to prove it to everyone the Titans were winners and not losers. Never losers. Not under my captainship.

I moved through the motion with newfound energy. Moved past the opponent players with ease as I snatched the ball up from the enemy midfielder.

Playing the ball between my feet, I moved toward their goals and focused on the clear path in front of me.

This time, I didn’t look for Derek.

This time, I didn’t slow down looking for anyone else on our team.

This time, I relied and believed in myself.

I picked my target and sent the ball flying quicker than anyone could anticipate it.

---